22 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



November 25, 1920 



Our Specialty Is 



American Walnut 



LUMBER and VENEERS 



Our Band Mill at Cincinnati is in daily opera- 

 tion and always carries on yard a stock of 

 two million feet or more of walnut lumber. 



WE ALSO HANDLE 



MAHOGANY 



MEXICAN 



PHILIPPINE 



THE KOSSE, SHOE & SCHLEYER CO. 



EASTERN BRANCH: 

 Baltimore, Md., 402 Law Building 



{Continued from page 17) 

 prices are "entirely satisfactory," while one other firm reports 

 that quotations on foreign business are "higher than those being 

 offered in this country." Some time ago, when the market began 

 crumbling, quite the reverse was true. Lumbermen were willing 

 to sell to Europe on lower terms than to American buyers on the 

 theory that shading of prices overseas would not adversely affect 

 the domestic market. Now the foreign buyer is paying higher 

 prices than the domestic one and is taking the initiative in the 

 resumption of buying. 



It remains to be seen what will be the effect of the formation 

 of the Federal Poreign Finance Corporation by southern bankers 

 on the lumber industry and particularly on exports of this com- 

 modity. This corporation is to be formally launched Jan. 1, 1921, 

 and is to have an initial capital stock of $6,000,000, with the idea 

 of increasing it eventually to $12,000,000. It is to have financing 

 power ten times as great as its capitalization, and it is being 

 formed by southern bankers and business men for the explicit 

 purpose of providing long-time credits to foreign buyers of cotton, 

 lumber, rice, sugar and other southern commodities. Practically all 

 the southern states have taken their full quotas, and it is confi- 

 dently predicted that the corporation will be doing business at the 

 beginning of the new year. Lack of purchasing power, due to the 

 stringency of money and the tightness of credit, has been given 

 as the principal reason for the slow foreign demand during the 

 past year or more, and the belief is entertained by bankers, cotton 

 men, lumbermen and other interests that long-time credits, extended 

 through this corporation, will prove the most tangible, definite and 

 far-reaching step that has yet been suggested for rehabilitating 

 foreign buying of lumber, cotton and other products accumulating 

 in the United States for lack of foreign outlets. 



There is nothing suggestive of a change for the better so far as 

 domestic business is concerned. Some of the largest o^vners of 



Home Office: CINCINNATI, O. 



l.o<;k Box 1.8, St. Hernard Branch 



lumber in Memjjhis are authority for the declaration that business 

 is, if anything, less satisfactory, as to volume and prices, than it 

 has been at any time since the depression manifested itself. Those 

 who are willing to sell their lumber at the decline are finding a 

 fair call for their holdings, but those who are at all disposed to 

 keep their lumber unless they are able to realize something well 

 above the cost of production are practically out of the running. 

 In this connection, it may be noted that some Shrewd lumbermen 

 here are buying in the open market on the theory that they can 

 buy the lumber more cheaply than they can produce it. Domestic 

 consumers, it would appear, are not showing the slightest disposi- 

 tion to anticipate their requirements at this time, despite the fact 

 that prices have receded rather more than 50 per cent, on an 

 average, from the high level ruling last spring. The feeling, how- 

 ever, is gaining ground that the activity of foreign buyers, and the 

 fact that lumber is more likely to advance than to decline further, 

 will bring about a change of attitude on the part of domestic con- 

 sumers in the near future, and that revival of active buying may be 

 rather closer than was indicated a short time ago. 



In the meantime, it can be stated authoritatively that improve- 

 ment in the market, incident to the larger buying on the part of 

 Europe, has not brought about the slightest deviation from the cur- 

 tailment policy recently inaugurated by hardwood lumber manu- 

 facturers in the southern field. The majority of these announced 

 some time ago that they would cut up the logs they had on hand 

 and close down their plants indefinitely. They have been doing 

 this religiously during the past few weeks. Furthermore, some of 

 the lumbermen who believed they would continue to operate at 

 capacity have tired of piling up lumber for which they were receiv- 

 ing very limited demand and have joined the procession of those 

 who declared for curtailment. Mills are going down every few days, 

 and it is generally conceded that, as a result, production of hard- 

 wood lumber is probably considerably short of one-third of normal. 



